Restaurant · wine list · structure
Building your wine list: how many wines, what split
Type of establishment, covers per service, target number of wines: the structure of the list by colour, by price band and by the glass, with the purchase price to aim for and the margin per bottle, printable. No château named, no brand: the structure first, the bottles after.
The generator
The splits are those seen on lists that sell. Change the number of wines and look at what it takes away, rather than what it adds.
What the kitchen serves Tick the dishes on the menu: the colour split follows.
What the structure doesn't tell you
The price bands are relative to your list, not absolute: “entry level” is your cheapest bottle, the one that reassures the table that hesitates. “Core” is where 60% of sales happen. “Premium” sells twice a week and holds the rest up. A list with no premium drags the core down; a list with no entry level loses the Tuesday lunch table.
The example appellations are there to give a sense of scale: on a Bordeaux list, entry level is found in Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, the core in Médoc, Graves, Saint-Émilion and Pessac-Léognan, premium in the classified growths and older vintages. Dry white comes from Pessac-Léognan, Graves and Entre-deux-Mers.
Tick the dishes on your menu and the structure follows your cooking: half the split comes from what is usual for the type of establishment, the other half from your dishes. A menu of fish and seafood pulls towards whites, a menu of red meat and game towards reds. For each dish, the tool gives the Bordeaux appellations that go with it and the price band they sit in, so your signature dish always has its wine on the list.
How many wines should a wine list have?
As many as you can stock without tying up a month's cash flow, and no more than the floor staff can present. A 40-cover bistro runs very well with 15 wines; a brasserie with 25; a fine dining restaurant lines up 45 to 80 because the sommelier sells them; a wine bar lists 60 because that is its business. Beyond that, every extra wine just sits there.
Why do too many wines cost a lot?
Three reasons. Stock: 60 wines at 6 bottles each is 360 bottles in the cellar, several thousand euros not working. Rotation: a bottle that sells once a month has time to change vintage, and the list becomes wrong. Service: an 80-line list that nobody on the floor can talk about reads like a price list, and the table takes the cheapest.
Should wine by the glass be on the same list?
Yes, at the top, and short. Four to six wines by the glass that change with the season are the way into the list: the table that tries a glass orders the bottle at the next meal. The price of a glass is worked out with the wine by the glass mark-up tool, losses included.
How often should the list be updated?
Twice a year for the seasons (rosé and light whites in spring, fuller reds in autumn) and whenever a wine changes vintage. A list dated at the bottom of the page, reprinted at each change, avoids the vintage crossed out in pen that undermines the rest.
Once the structure is in place
What remains is filling the boxes with named bottles, at a purchase price that leaves the mark-up room to breathe. The wine for restaurants page describes what a Bordeaux wine merchant offers direct: trade prices, carriage paid, samples, older vintages for the premium band. You can also send the printed structure with a quote request: reply within 48 working hours, with a proposal box by box.